The Doctor + Four

Barry halted. “I’ll wait till you get it started.”

“I’m grateful. You’re quite a gentleman.” Despite the absence of a ring, she supposed he might have a girlfriend or a wife. “The lady in your life had better appreciate it.”

“The only ladies in my life are my sister and my mother.”

She felt a ridiculous jolt of pleasure. For heaven’s sake, their acquaintance was to last at most another minute, Sonya mused as she got out.

When her feet hit the pavement, her knees went wobbly. A powerful sense memory swept over her of rough arms, dragging her.

She clung to the side of the sedan. If only her legs would stop shaking! She hated this weakness.

A door slammed and Barry strode around. His arms surrounded her.

“Panic attack,” she mumbled against his chest, and tried to declare that it was already past. Too bad the clattering teeth gave her away.

“I’m surprised you held up this long.” His baritone soothed the tremors. “Get back in and I’ll drive you home. You can collect your car in the morning.”

“They might tow it.”

“We’ll leave a note.” From an inside pocket, he retrieved a pad and jotted Medical emergency. Will return in the a.m. He stuck the note beneath the wipers. “If you drive in this condition, you’ll cause an accident. Which, I gather, is yet another trauma you should avoid.”

He was right. Sonya huddled into her seat. “Sorry for acting like a wimp.”

Barry took the wheel. “Are you kidding? You went through hell for that girl.”

“I’d do it again.”

“Not tonight you won’t.”

After explaining how to reach her condo, Sonya closed her eyes and luxuriated in the illusion of being cherished and cosseted. Having Barry drop into her world just when she needed him was an amazing fantasy.

A man who understood her implicitly. A man she would never have to tell about her inability to bear a child because he’d be flying across the country and out of her life tomorrow.

Cocooned in the car, she released her anxiety. Perhaps because the moment seemed divorced from reality, a sense of euphoria replaced her fears and worries. A trick of the mind, no doubt, in reaction to the unexpected support, but hey, it beat taking Valium.

The condo complex lay silent in the moonlight. Barry escorted her along a walkway lined with white-flowered bushes.

“Is that jasmine?” He indicated the landscaping. “The scent’s overpowering.”

She inhaled deeply. “Jazmín,” she confirmed, instinctively pronouncing it haz-MEEN.

“Is Spanish your native language?” He waited as she stopped outside the unit and fumbled for a key.

“I’m bilingual. My parents are from Costa Rica. They were little when their families fled, though, so they grew up here, and so did I.” She found the key in a side compartment.

“Fled?” he queried. “Costa Rica doesn’t sound like a place you’d want to run away from.”

“There was a revolt about fifty years ago. Both sets of grandparents were forced into exile.” Her world history classes hadn’t mentioned the event, but it certainly mattered to her family. “The U.S. granted them asylum.”

“Did they ever go back?”

“Only to visit. They brought me with them when I was about ten. I remember beautiful beaches and a bustling marketplace. And friendly people.” She eased inside. Barry hesitated only a beat before accepting her unspoken invitation.

Inviting a man into her home at this hour might not be the wisest choice. With her mood elevated, however, Sonya didn’t see the harm.

A lamp brought out the room’s intense hues: pumpkin walls, a blue sofa with patterned cushions and a framed red-and-orange weaving above the corner desk. The intensity energized her.

“Whoa!” Barry pretended to shade his eyes.

“I’m going to rustle up an omelet. Care for some?” Until this moment, she hadn’t realized how hungry she’d grown.

“Sure. Can I help?” He tossed off the question as if accustomed to accompanying women into kitchens. Perhaps he was.

At the restaurant, Sonya’s mother had supervised the cuisine while her father had run the service operation. As for Reuben, he wouldn’t have dreamed of offering to cook. Yet Barry struck her as genuinely interested in helping. “Well, sure.”

He caught her off guard a second time by rinsing the breakfast dishes in the sink and loading them into the dishwasher. As she pulled a bowl and a frying pan from beneath the counter, Sonya was surprised to find him so domestic.

He joined her at the refrigerator to study the contents. Although they didn’t touch, her body registered his sheltering nearness with pleasure.

“Potatoes.” He indicated a bag in a lower bin. “Those would fry up nicely.”

“I wasn’t planning to fix an entire meal,” she protested.

“I’ll do it.”

She met his amused gaze. He’d assumed she would understand what he meant.

“This ought to be interesting.” Sonya retrieved the ingredients she’d sought: eggs, milk, jalapeños, cheese and mushrooms.

In addition to the potatoes, Barry fetched olive oil, garlic salt and a couple of onions from the cupboard. After tossing his coat across a chair, he found a peeler and got down to business. They worked side by side, him at the cutting board and her setting up by the stove.

He stripped away the skins with practiced speed. The possibility that he’d been assigned to a prison kitchen crossed Sonya’s mind. Again, she dismissed any such discussion as disrespectful of him.

“What’s your kitchen like at home?” she asked, instead.

“Large and old-fashioned. My sister and I share a house.” He didn’t appear to resent her curiosity. “Mostly we eat carryout or Karen fixes dinner, but once in a while the spirit moves me to get creative.” A peeling landed on his shirt. He plucked it off, leaving a damp spot.

“Aprons. I should have thought of that sooner.” From a drawer, Sonya produced a pair of large ones. She set a red-and-white check beside him on the counter and adjusted the pink flowered one over her top and jeans. “Do you do laundry, too, or foist that on your sister?”

He rinsed a couple of spuds, splattering water on his shirt in the process. “She’d skewer me if I tried. Would you mind putting that on me? My hands are dirty.”

She’d never tied an apron on another person before, Sonya mused as she assessed the logistics. “You’ll have to bend a little.” When he complied, she slipped the upper loop over his head and let the apron fall in front.

Reaching for the strings required putting her arms around him. A large, hard-muscled shape filled Sonya’s grasp, and she hesitated to let go. Not only because she’d missed holding a man, but because Barry simply felt right.

Then she heard his breath catch. If she wasn’t careful, she might inspire a thoroughly male reaction that she didn’t intend.

Or did she?